The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception (17 page)

"What about our special payload?" The Admiral asked.

"Infrared scanners on Ganymede station confirmed the activation of the thermite pack. The quantum link should be just so much slag mixed with the other bits of mining samples we planted," Ken Kirkland reported.

"The best news is, this gives us a clear road forward."

"Explain, Captain."

"Well, Sir, since we now know that the D'lralu probe will seek to investigate technology. To inflict minimal damage, we can utilize that to get close to the thing, and in essence plant a tracking device."

"How would you pull this off?"

"As you recall..." Thais said, "We created two mining probe decoys. We use the second one to get the D'lralu to stop."

Ken held up one hand flat and zoomed the other hand up to it, "While it's storing the second probe, we sneak onboard and plant the tracker."

"And how does one 'sneak' up?"

Cat smiled... “We are going to borrow a play from the D'lralu's game... We've fitted one of the shuttles with cloaking technology, very similar to what our friend out there is using. Obviously we can detect a ship through a hyper field deflector cloak, but our guess is the D'lralu can't."

"That seems to be an awful risky assumption."

"Not really, Sir. If they were aware of the vulnerability, they would have fixed it."

Ken piped in..."All it would really take, is a second field designed to detect a sensor scan, and modulate the scan to cancel out the effects of the first field. We can do it, because unlike the guy doing the sensor scan, we know the strengths of both fields. Plus, the second cloak field is so much weaker it's unlikely that it could be detected."

"OK... I'll buy you can cloak a shuttle but how do you plant the tracker?"

Cat looked the Admiral directly in the eye... "You're not going to like it."

Eleven's sensors detected another electromagnetic signature. The craft seemed to be transmitting across a wide number of frequencies. Its behavior did not fit normal parameters and was deemed aberrant. A special subroutine was triggered. Eleven neutralized the alien technology per a well-established protocol, and moved in to recover the craft. Eleven continued to charge its EMP weapon.

Cat watched the D'lralu probe approach her cloaked shuttle. She had been right. The Admiral had not liked their plan, but in the end he agreed that the rewards well out weighted the risks.

The problem with the cloaked shuttle was, that there were very few options for leaving the shuttle, and entering the D'lralu vessel, in order to plant the tracker. Opening a door on the shuttle would disrupt the cloak. While a person wearing a vacuum suit tethered to the shuttle would also be exposed. The solution was suggested by Cal.

Cat's unique Heshe nanites, and their ability to change her physiology, meant not only could she survive the rigors of space without a vacuum suit, but even more important in this instance, she could literally coat herself with a thin layer of metal, which would allow a miniature version of the shuttles cloaking displacement shield to mold over her body, while her Heshe enhanced muscles clung to the exterior of the shuttle. The plan was to simply float into the D'lralu's ship's bay with the second probe, once it was collected... Plant the tracker and then quickly exit before the bay door closed.

It is a well-known fact that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

***

Ken sat in the Captain's chair on the USC Yorktown. He had to admit, it was a nice seat. "Keep a close watch on our shuttle, Lieutenant"

"Aye, Sir." Lieutenant Carstairs answered. "The probe's storage bay is opening up, just like last time. Our shuttle is right there so the Captain is in the right place... Sir, I am picking up something unusual... There seems to be a large buildup in their EMP generator"

"What!" Ken yelled. “Quick! Call her back... If it fires that EMP, she is toast."

Suddenly the cloak on the shuttle evaporated, as the D'lralu's EMP shredded the displacement field. In the next instance the D'lralu probe disappeared.

***

Reconnaissance probe Eleven's threat mitigation subroutines responded to the sudden appearance of a vessel within close proximity. It did not pause to determine how the craft got to where it was. It did not link the random EMP that it discharged, as part of its previous evoked 'Aberrant behavior' protocol, with the collapse of the other vessels cloaking shield. It simply responded as per hardwired instinct, and performed a random jump.

Once the jump was complete, Elevens cybernetic brain began the task of evaluating its current location, followed by the tedious two to three week task of calculating the jump back to the D'lralu home world.

***

"Tell me you got a fix on where that ship jumped to…" Acting Captain Ken Kirkland said in a low voice, that still carried across the suddenly hushed bridge of the USC Yorktown.

“No, Sir… I’m widening the scan radius but they could be anywhere,” Lt. Carstairs said while quickly adjusting the array of scanners available to the crew of the Yorktown.

“Cal, any input right now would be welcome.”

"
I'm sorry Commander. The D'lralu cannot calculate jumps of any distance, without an extensive period of time in which to carry out the calculation. If the probe is not in the immediate vicinity, then it must have engaged in a random jump. Which means, there literally is no way to determine where to look."

Ken flagged a nearby yeoman. "Fetch the Admiral!" Turning back to his sensor officer he asked... "If the Captain got caught in that EMP blast would she survive?"

Cal answered. "
The pulse was something on the order of 10 mega joules. The surface effect currents would be on the order ten to the third amps. Any organic tissue would not survive. Please note, that even had she entered the D'lralu's storage bay, the x-ray discharge from the overloading hyper-field generators would have proven fatal
."

The Admiral entered the bridge as Ken asked... "So the Captain is dead?"

"
That is most certainly the case...
" Cal answered.  "
...at least another fourteen hours.
"

***

The Heshe AI, known as Cal, was remotely linked via quantum entanglement to the heavily shielded encounter unit installed in Catherine Kimbridge's cloned host. The host was heavily compromised by extensive electrical burns and radiation damage. Its organic components were swarming with nanites, that were rapidly reconfiguring ruptured cells, and repairing DNA structures that had become damaged by the probe's EMP blast.

Cat's memories were incrementally backed up ten times a second. Cal, who had become an expert, over the last fifty years, at reintegrating Cat's memories with organic systems, decided to systematically edit out the last three seconds of Cat's second life. This would reduce reintegration stress while at the same time providing enough of the experience of death to allow her to comprehend what had happened.

Cal took the opportunity to have Cat's construction nanites harvest 3.2 kilograms of titanium from the ore samples in the D'lralu vessel's bay. This material was incorporated into her skeletal structure. Since she was most certainly heading into enemy territory, he instructed the nanites repairing her organic systems, to make certain enhancements. Her already enhanced strength was increased by fifty percent. In addition, her reaction time was enhanced, by augmenting slower neural pathways between her extremities and her brain with superconducting fibers. Finally, since Cat's nanites could continuously repair damaged blood cells, the production of new cells in her bone marrow was redundant. This space was now used to hold massive numbers of dormant nanites, that could swarm in mass to any site on her body and rapidly address any trauma that might occur.

With her repairs complete it was time to reintegrate her memories.

***

Cat opened her eyes. She had just entered the D'lralu's sample bay, when there was a bone-numbing pain and a bright flash that seared her optic nerves... Now the pain was gone and everything was dark. She had a really bad feeling about this. Her nanites where reporting near absolute zero and the lack of an atmosphere. She knew she was not breathing, but she felt no lack of oxygen. Her nanites, in addition to handling respiration via some other means, completely suppressed her breathing reflex.  If she had to guess she was still in the D'lralu ship but clearly a period of time had passed.

"
Cal?
" She thought.

"
Greetings beloved of the creator
"

"Where am I?"

"
You are here.
"

"Not especially helpful... Tell me we are not playing this game again..." remembering the surreal feeling she had had, when she woke up after her fatal crash on Mars.  "I take it something bad happened?"

"
If by 'bad' you mean electrocution followed by lethal radiation... Then yes, something 'bad' happened.
"

"Can my nanites repair the damage?"

"
Captain, you misunderstand the severity of your situation. Most of your organic systems were carbonized by the currents induced by a ten mega joule EMP. It has taken almost sixteen hours to literally rebuild you molecule by molecule.
"

"You can do that?"

"
Your encounter unit contains a complete schematic of your organic systems, as well as a redundant incremental backup of your cognitive system. Rebuilding was not difficult given that most of your organic matter was still in the general vicinity.
"

"Trust me when I tell you, this is not the way I envisioned my day starting."

"
I should hope not.
"

Cat looked around the chamber. Her eyes saw deep into the shadows. She suspected her Heshe nanites were extending the spectral range of her eyesight. Not for the first time, she mouthed a silent thank you for the sophistication of the little buggers she had running around in side of her.

"I suppose the tracker was destroyed?"

"
That is correct. Also, some of its component materials were harvested to rebuild you.
"

"That's disturbing on so many levels" Cat muttered. "If I can get out of here... What are the chances the Yorktown will be close enough to pick me up?"

"
Essentially non-existent. The D'lralu probe engaged a random jump just after the EMP blast. It was probably an automated defense routine, triggered by the sudden decloaking of your shuttle
."

"Great... We are God-knows-where, with no means of communicating..."

"
You are only partially correct.
"